Systems and methods for providing a progress bar for updating viewing status of previously viewed content

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided for providing information about events occurring in media content that was previously accessed. A display of a progress bar including segments for the events in the previously accessed content is provided in the screen view of current media being accessed. The progress bar segments may be selected to access the content. Upon conclusion of the content, an image and text about the content may be supplied to the viewer to post on social media about the content.

BACKGROUND

There are numerous types and sources of media content and it isincreasingly difficult to find time to watch all of the interestingmedia that a viewer hears about. In addition, balancing viewingstreaming media, as well as live content, each of which may beinterrupted by advertisements and pop-up windows with options forinteracting with the media, can make media consumption complicated andtime consuming. Some viewers may also wish to participate in audiencecommentary or indicate that they are viewing certain media to make themedia viewing experience more social. Simplifying the presentation ofmultiple content items so that a viewer can view highlights or certainportions of content may improve the viewer's ability to consume moreinteresting content in a limited time period.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, systems and methods are described for providing informationabout content that a viewer has accessed. In an example, a display isprovided for a viewer including segments relating to content the viewerhas accessed. A viewer may access, for example, media content, such as asporting event. While the sporting event is playing, the viewer may wishto view other content, such as an episode of a television series. Whenthe viewer accesses the other content (e.g., changes the channel to viewthe television series), a media guidance application running on userequipment may collect information about the sporting event that waspreviously viewed, to aggregate for display in the screen of thetelevision series that the viewer is currently watching. The informationabout the sporting event may be displayed in a progress bar or otherformat so that it is relatively unobtrusive in the display screen of thetelevision series. That is, rather than providing a split screen orpicture-in-picture view of the previously viewed content, the viewer canwatch a screen including a main display of media content with only asmall portion of the display including highlights and update segmentsfor the previously accessed content.

In an illustrative example, methods and systems are provided foridentifying segments of previously accessed content. A viewer may accessfirst content with user equipment. The first content may be any type ofmedia content that may be obtained from any media source. In somescenarios, the first content may be a type of media that has some liveor in the moment aspect that would make a viewer wish to view it at aparticular time, such as a sporting event, or first run televisionepisode. However, the first content can be any type of media. The userequipment used to access the content may be any type of user devicecapable of displaying a media item such as a television, tablet,computer, portable device, gaming device, set-top box, mobile device,mobile phone, etc. In general, such user equipment may be operated witha media guidance application to support media access and provideenhanced features and interactions with the media.

After the viewer has accessed the first content, the viewer may wish toview a second media content item and will instruct the user equipmentvia the media guidance application to access the second content insteadof the first content. For example, the viewer may wish to stop watchingthe sports game and watch an episode of a television series instead. Themedia guidance application will receive the instruction to access thesecond content and will change the screen display to show the secondcontent. The media guidance application will store information about thepoint in time (a first progression point) at which the user stoppedwatching the first content. The time for the first progression point inthe first content may be stored in a cache by the media guidanceapplication for use in generating a display of information about thefirst content.

The media guidance application may generate a simultaneous display ofthe second content and information identifying segments of the firstcontent that follow the first progression point. Using the exampleabove, in a display of the television episode, information about thesporting event, such as event highlights, milestones, etc., thatoccurred after the viewer stopped accessing the sporting event may beidentified and shown in the screen. This arrangement allows a viewer towatch a television show while providing certain information about mediathat is known to be interesting to the viewer (because the viewer hadaccessed it) so that the viewer can keep track of events occurring in asporting event.

The display of information segments may be provided in a manner suchthat the user can select the segments to cause an action related to thesegment. The media guidance application may receive the viewer'sselection of a first of the segments of the first content and the mediaguidance application will perform an action related to the selectedfirst segment of the first content. For example, the viewer may use atouch screen on the display, a remote-control, or other input device toselect one of the segments shown on the screen. The segments may beselected to perform some media operation related to the segment such aschanging the channel or source input so that the viewer can view thefirst content, i.e., the sporting event at the time of the segment.Other actions can be to record the first content, resume the firstcontent from the time the viewer stopped watching the sporting event,obtaining a link to the event occurring in the segment, viewing a clipof the segment event, or other action.

In another example, a system and method for identifying segments ofpreviously accessed content may be provided by accessing with controlcircuitry, first content with user equipment. The first content may beany type of media content, such as a movie, television show, sportingevent, reality show, episode of a television series, or other mediacontent. The first content may be provided by any type of media source,such as television, subscription streaming service, Internet mediasource, or other media source, accessed using a media guidanceapplication for delivery to a display screen of user equipment, such asa television screen or portable device. After the viewer has begunwatching the first content, the viewer may wish to watch other mediacontent, and will input instructions that are received by the mediaguidance application which instructs the user equipment to access thesecond content instead of the first content. In an example, a viewer maywish to watch one television show, but then changes to a secondtelevision show. In another example, a viewer may wish to view asporting event, but then changes to a second sporting event or secondtelevision show. The viewer may still wish to keep track of the firstshow, and could, for example, manually return to the first show atcommercial or other periodic breaks.

The time at which the second content is accessed is a first progressionpoint in the first content. The time for the first progression point maybe stored by the media guidance application to, for example, provide astarting point for highlighting following events in the first contentfor the viewer.

While the second content is being accessed by the viewer, i.e., whilethe viewer is watching the second television show, the media guidanceapplication may monitor metadata associated with the first content. Forexample, the media guidance application may monitor metadata about thefirst content, such as a sporting event, using a sports feed from thecontent provider. In some scenarios, the media guidance application maymonitor metadata about the first content from a third-party source, suchas a media aggregator that provides commentary or live streams aboutcontent. In another example, the media guidance application may monitorsocial media networks for updates and events relating to media items.

The metadata monitoring performed by the media guidance application forthe first content may include monitoring for metadata for eventsoccurring in the first content. Such events may be associated with arespective timestamp that follow the first progression point. Thus, inthe sporting event example, the media guidance application will monitormetadata for events occurring in the sporting event following the timewhen the viewer stopped accessing the sporting event and when the viewerstarted watching the second television show. Some examples of events ina sporting event could be related to points scored, penalties, half timeshows, in addition, events could be moments that are tagged or posted insocial media for the sporting event.

In response to detecting an event or multiple events in the firstcontent, the media guidance application may store informationidentifying the event in a list of segments for the first content thatfollow the first progression point. Each event for the sporting eventmay be stored or cached in memory with a timestamp so that the mediaguidance application can list such events following the progressionpoint. The timestamps can be used to order events in the display, etc.

The media guidance application may then generate for display on the userequipment, such as the viewers television or portable tablet, asimultaneous display of the second content and the list of segments ofthe first content that follow the first progression point. Thus, whilethe viewer is watching the second television show, the viewer can see adisplay in the same screen that includes a list of segments relating tothe first content following when the viewer stopped watching the firstcontent. Using the sporting event example, a viewer can switch fromwatching a sporting event to watching a television show, and whilewatching the show, the viewer can see in the display a list of eventsthat are occurring in the sporting event since the viewer stoppedwatching the sporting event. Thus, the viewer can continue to watch thesecond show and see when events are occurring in the sporting event,e.g., when points are scored, or players come in or out, etc.

The list of events or segments from the first content may be selected bythe viewer. When the media guidance application receives a userselection of a segment in the list of the first content, the mediaguidance application may retrieve timestamps for the selected segmentthat represent a start time and an end time of the associated event inthe first content.

The media guidance application can perform an action related to theselected first segment of the first content based on the retrievedtimestamps. For example, the media guidance application may use theretrieved timestamp information to identify the time and portion of theevent that the viewer is interested in. Some types of actions that maybe performed by the media guidance application in response to selectionof the first segment may include, for example, recording the firstsegment, adding the selected segment to a watch list, sharing the firstsegment on a social network, generating a clip associated with theselected first segment, resuming the first content at the firstprogression point, and accessing the first content starting from thestart time of the first segment.

In an illustrative example, a viewer watching a basketball game maychoose to watch another television show but will keep tabs on thebasketball game by way of a list displayed within the television showscreen that includes segments for events related to the basketball gamethat occur after the viewer stopped watching the basketball game. If theviewer sees an interesting segment in the list, the viewer may selectthe segment and a media guidance application will determine timestampsfor the beginning and end of the segment so that the media guidanceapplication can deliver content or perform some action for the event forthe viewer.

The segments included in the list may be populated using metadata orfeed of information related to the first content. In some scenarios, themedia guidance application will collect feedback about the first contentand metadata for the first content to identify interesting segments forthe first content. Ideally, the most interesting segments will beincluded in the display so that less interesting segments do not clutterthe screen. Some more interesting segments may be highlighted in aparticular manner to make them more distinctive for the viewer. Forexample, a list of segments may be related to certain events about abasketball game, perhaps points scored, and also a special play that isbeing discussed on social media. Such play may be highlighted in thelist of segments. The more interesting segments may also have associatedadditional interaction options. For example, for a special play trendingon Twitter, there may be an option to access the Twitter stream aboutthe play. There may also be a way to capture the event and link to thecontent on the viewer's social media. Other additional interactionoptions could also be provided for interesting events.

The media guidance application may also use the viewer's user profile toidentify segments that may be more relevant to the viewer. Inparticular, the media guidance application may compare each segment inthe list of segments about the first content to the user's profile andthen any matching or related segments may be displayed in the list in avisually distinctive manner. In an example relating to the basketballgame, a viewer may have a fantasy basketball team that is stored in theuser profile. If the basketball game includes players from the viewersfantasy team, any segment items related to the viewer's fantasy playersmay be shown in a distinctive manner. In this way, the viewer may beable to access content actions for team players.

In another example, a type of events in the segments may be determinedby the media guidance application based on metadata for the respectiveevent. The media guidance application may compare the event type withthe viewer's user profile. Any events having an event type that matchesthe user profile may be selected by the media guidance application toinclude in the list of segments. As an example, a viewer may enjoywatching halftime shows in sporting events. In the basketball gameexample, the halftime show may be a matching event that may be selectedfor inclusion in the segment list because it matches with information inthe user profile. Of course, the halftime show could also be included inthe segment list because it is trending on social media, or for otherreasons.

In another example, while the viewer is accessing the second content,such as a television show, the media guidance application may monitormetadata for the first content for an event or events that haverespective timestamps after the first progression point, i.e., eventsthat occur after the viewer stopped accessing the first content.

In an example, a viewer may watch or access the second content and seean interesting segment in the list of segments for the first content. Ifthe viewer selects the interesting segment, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display within the screen of the secondcontent, a picture-in-picture display of the first content at a timecorresponding to a timestamp for the selected first segment. The displaymay also include a display of the list of segments for the first contentthat follow the timestamp for the selected segment. In some scenarios, asecond list of segments for the second content that follows a timestampassociated with the selection of the first segment may also be includedin the display. Thus, the viewer can watch a small display of an eventoccurring in the first content within the screen of the second content.In case the viewer is focused on the first content event in thepicture-in-picture display, a progress bar indicating events in thesecond content may also be included in the display so the viewer can seewhat he or she may have missed.

In some examples, the media guidance application may store informationabout events, segments, and respective timestamps in a cache or memorywhen, for example, the media guidance application is monitoring metadataand determining which events to include in the segment list. The mediaguidance application may also store links to additional content that isrelated to the respective segments for the first content. Such links maybe stored to provide ready access to the content should the user wish toaccess it.

In another example, a viewer may wish to share that they have watched oraccessed some media. For example, the viewer may wish to share it onsocial media. To assist the viewer with sharing this information, themedia guidance application may identify, with control circuitry, animage associated with the second content. When the second content hasconcluded, for example, when the viewer has finished accessing orwatching the second content, the media guidance application may presentto the user the image associated with the second content. The mediaguidance application may also present the image including textualcommentary associated with the image. The viewer may wish to post theimage and textual commentary to social media and the media guidanceapplication may receive a selection by the user of an option to post theimage and the textual commentary associated with the image. In responseto this selection, the media guidance application may transmit to asocial network a communication that includes the image and the textualcommentary.

The media guidance application may identify the image for posting to thesocial network for the user by searching an image database for imagesassociated with the second content. The image database can be a mediafocused database or a database that includes any type of images. Themedia guidance application may analyze information about each of therespective images. The information about the respective images can be,for example, metadata about the image that indicates a source or use ofthe image. The media guidance application may use the information aboutthe images to determine a popularity of the respective images and selectan image that is the most popular. For example, an image that appears inmultiple image databases or that is used in social networks may bedeemed more popular.

It should be noted that the systems, methods, apparatuses, and/oraspects described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or aspects described in thisdisclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of media content being displayed ina screen generated by a media guidance application in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative example of media content beingdisplayed with information about other media content in a screengenerated by a media guidance application in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows another illustrative example of media content beingdisplayed in a screen generated by a media guidance application inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 shows another illustrative example of media content beingdisplayed with information about other media content in a screengenerated by a media guidance application in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative example of a progress bar and options menufor media content generated by a media guidance application inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 shows another illustrative example of media content and aprogress bar being displayed with a picture-in-picture display andinformation about other media content in a screen generated by a mediaguidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 7 shows an illustrative example of media content, apicture-in-picture display of other content, and an option forinteracting with media content generated by a media guidance applicationin accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIGS. 8-9 show other illustrative examples of display screens generatedby a media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIGS. 12-13 are flowcharts of illustrative processes for generating aprogress bar of recently viewed media content in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIGS. 14-16 are flowcharts of illustrative processes for selectingsegments to include in a progress bar for recently viewed media content,in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for selecting an imagerelated to media content for a viewer in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Accordingly, systems and methods are described herein for enhancing aviewer's media consumption experience. In particular, for a viewerinterested in more than one media item, the viewer may view one mediacontent item, then switch to a second media content item. A mediaguidance application may detect the viewer's switch from the one mediaitem to the second media item and can monitor the media item that is nolonger being viewed and present information about that media item to theviewer. For example, a viewer may access a sporting event and thenchange to accessing another media item, such as a television show. Themedia guidance application may monitor the progress of the sportingevent after the viewer has stopped accessing the event. Highlights orevents from the sporting event may be identified by the media guidanceapplication and information about such events may be presented to theviewer in a progress bar display in the screen of the television showthat the viewer is watching. Thus, the user may be able to view thetelevision show while keeping an eye on details about the sporting eventthat the viewer is missing. In some scenarios, it may be helpful for theprogress bar to be relatively small and the information in the progressbar limited to only the most relevant information for the viewer so thatthe viewer is not distracted by a lot of uninteresting information. Inother scenarios, the user may wish to have a lot of information in theprogress bar so that the user does not miss anything in the sportingevent. Such preferences may be included in the user's user profile.

Turning to FIG. 1, a viewer may access an item of media content, such asa basketball game as shown in screen 100. The screen 100 may be any typeof electronic display screen that is capable of displaying media. Forexample, screen 100 may be a television, computer, portable device,tablet, or other screen device. The basketball game 110 may be providedby a media guidance application capable of generating media content fordisplay on the screen 100 and may be delivered using a media source,such as a streaming sports channel service, a television channel, cabletelevision service, Internet based media sources, or other source. Afterthe viewer has accessed the basketball game, the viewer may wish toaccess another media item and a media guidance screen 120 may be used toidentify another media item to view. If the viewer selects the Simpsonsfrom the media guidance screen 120, the viewer may access the Simpsons,as shown in FIG. 2. Whether the viewer has watched the basketball gamefor a short or long period of time, the media guidance application willdetect that the viewer has stopped accessing the basketball game and cancontinue monitoring the basketball game while the viewer is accessingthe new media item.

Turning to FIG. 2, in response to receiving a selection of another mediaitem—e.g., the Simpsons from the media guidance screen 120 in FIG. 1,the media guidance application may generate a display 200 of the newmedia item which includes the television program the Simpsons 210. Thetelevision program 210 may be depicted with a simultaneous display of aprogress bar 230 that includes details about the basketball game thatthe viewer had previously accessed. When the viewer initially accessesthe second content, there may not have been any missed noteworthy eventsin the basketball game to include in the progress bar 230. There couldbe a delay in displaying a progress bar 230 until there are suitableevents to display, or the progress bar 230 can be displayed with someminimum amount of information such as a title of the content item, andin this example, the teams playing and the current score. Although theprogress bar 230 is depicted in a vertical position on the left of thescreen 200, the progress bar 230 may be located in any suitable place onthe screen 200, such as along the bottom or top of the screen, and maybe moved or have its size and shape altered by the viewer. In somearrangements, the shape, size and location may be altered based on thecontents in the progress bar. The progress bar 230 may include eventinformation about the progress of the basketball game, i.e., thepreviously accessed content.

The information included in the progress bar 230 may be selected by themedia guidance application from event information for the basketballgame that is being monitored by the media guidance application. Themedia guidance application may monitor a stream of sports informationfrom, for example, the media source of the basketball game that waspreviously accessed by the user, or a sports feed for the NBA, or othersource. In addition, the media guidance application may monitorthird-party sources and social media for information about the game.Thus, the media guidance application can select various pieces ofinformation to include in the progress bar 230 that may be suitable forthe viewer. For example, as shown, the progress bar 230 may includeinformation about plays, e.g., that player 23 has made a free throw 232,that player 11 has made a three-point field goal, and player 27 has madea steal. These types of information may be obtained from a sports feedfor the game. Some of these items may be selected to include in theprogress bar 230 because they may have some particular relevance to theviewer. For example, player 23 may be a favorite of the viewer's, orperhaps player 23 is on the viewer's fantasy team. Such information canbe gleaned from the viewer's user profile, and used by the mediaguidance application to select relevant information to include in theprogress bar. In addition, the progress bar 230 may include otherinformation, such as a halftime show 235 and that player 5 was injured.Such information may be obtained from the sports feed, or from socialmedia or other source that may be commenting on such events that areoccurring in the game.

Any of the items included in the progress bar 230 may be selected by theviewer and an action related to the selected item may be performed bythe media guidance application. For example, a viewer may select theitem 232 to view a clip of player 23 making a free throw, or to returnto the basketball game at the time player 23 is making the free throwshot. In general, the segment items shown in progress bar 230 may bepresented following the time the viewer ceased accessing the basketballgame. In addition, the segment items in progress bar 230 may change astime elapses and there are more events occurring in the basketball game.Some of the segments in progress bar 230 may be depicted in adistinctive manner so that the viewer knows that they may beparticularly relevant to the viewer. For example, item 232 may behighlighted because player 23 is a favorite of the viewer's, and item235 may be highlighted because the halftime show includes a favoriteperformer of the viewer. Such favorite information may be obtained fromthe viewer's user profile. In addition, segments may be highlightedbecause they are determined to be interesting or popular, for example,based on treatment by commentators or in social media. The segmentsincluded in progress bar 230 may be obtained from metadata about thepreviously accessed media and may be associated with a timestamp so thatif the segment is selected, the media guidance application can determinea time interval of the media to display for the viewer of the selectedsegment.

In another example, turning to FIG. 3, a viewer may wish to view areality show—Survivor. As shown in screen 300, the viewer may access anepisode of a television series Survivor 310. The episode of Survivor maybe provided by a streaming service or television channel for the viewer.The viewer may then select a media guidance window 320 to choose anothermedia content. A selection of, for example, the Simpsons from the mediaguidance window 320 may be received by the media guidance application,and in response, the media guidance application will cease presentingthe Survivor episode from FIG. 3, and generate the screen shown in FIG.4.

FIG. 4 depicts a screen 400 that includes another media item—theSimpsons 410 which may be presented with a progress bar 430 thatincludes details about the Survivor episode that the user is no longerviewing. Although progress bar 430 is depicted including multiplesegments of information about the episode, such information may not beimmediately displayed when the viewer first accesses the Simpsonsbecause nothing has occurred in the Survivor episode in the time it tookto change the screen display from Survivor to the Simpsons. Progress bar430 may include information about the previously accessed media—theSurvivor episode, from the time the viewer has stopped accessing themedia. The segments included in progress bar 430 may be obtained frommetadata about the previously accessed media and may be associated witha timestamp so that if the segment is selected, the media guidanceapplication can determine a time interval of the media to display forthe viewer of the selected segment. Some of the segments shown inprogress bar 430 may be highlighted in a distinctive manner to indicatethat they be particularly interesting to the viewer. As shown in FIG. 4,a segment “Bob drops ball” is shown highlighted. The media guidanceapplication may monitor metadata about the previously accessed mediacontent to identify segments that the user may be interested in. Inaddition, the media guidance application may monitor social media andthird-party treatment of the previously accessed media content toidentify popular or interesting events. In this case, the media guidanceapplication may have detected an event in the previously accessedepisode of Survivor where Bob drops a ball that has been posted orcommented upon in social media. Alternatively, the media guidanceapplication may have detected that the viewer has some interest orconnection to Bob from the user's user profile. Either of thesepossibilities, or the combination thereof, may cause the media guidanceapplication to present the segment in a distinctive manner for theviewer.

In some scenarios, particularly for media content that is not a firstrun show or live event, there may be metadata about the media contentthat would be suitable for a progress bar. In this case, the mediaguidance application may populate a progress bar with information aboutthe previously accessed media for the viewer to see in a screen of newmedia content so that the viewer can choose to return to interestingaspects from the previously accessed media. The segments included in theprogress bar 430 may have various actions that may be performed by themedia guidance application in response to a selection by the user of asegment.

For example, turning to FIG. 5, a display screen 500 may be generatedupon selection of one of the items in a progress bar, such as progressbar 505. The progress bar 505 may include one or more segments about apreviously accessed media item. As shown in FIG. 5, the segments mayrelate to an episode of Survivor that was previously accessed. Thesegment may include events that have occurred in the episode of Survivorsince the viewer stopped accessing the episode. For example, theprogress bar 505 may include a title of the previously accessed mediacontent Survivor 510, as well as events that have occurred during theprogression of the episode, e.g., a challenge 520, challenge preparation530, Bob drops ball 540, Sue saves team 550, a vote 560 and a meeting ofthe tribal council 570. Any of the segments included in the list ofitems in the progress bar 505 may be selected by the viewer to accessactions related to the items. The segments included in the list in theprogress bar 505 may be highlighted, e.g. Bob drops ball 540. Inaddition, another item may be highlighted in a different manner, e.g.,the Tribal Council 570 to indicate another event that may be interestingto a viewer for a different reason, or that may lead to a different typeof content or content from a different type of source. Other types ofhighlighting may also be used to distinguish between actions availablefor the segments.

When a segment is selected from progress bar 505, the media guidanceapplication may receive the selection and generate a media interactionoption window 580 for a user to select an action to perform inconnection with the selected segment. As shown, some choices forinteracting with the selected segment may include to record the segmentor previously accessed content, return to watch the previously accessedcontent at a time associated with the segment, access to a link relatedto the segment, for example, access to a link that can be shared onsocial media, watch a video clip associated with the segment, or resumewatching the previously accessed content, either at the current time inthe progression of the content, or from the time the viewer stoppedaccessing the content. Other options may also be included in optionswindow 580 for interacting with the previously accessed content.Although not shown in FIG. 5, the media content being displayed prior toselection of an item from the progress bar 505 may continue to bedisplayed underneath the option window 580.

A viewer may select one of the actions for a segment from progress bar505, for example, to view a segment about Survivor associated with Bobdropping the ball. In response to receiving such selection, the mediaguidance application may generate a display such as that shown in FIG.6. Turning to FIG. 6, a screen 600 may include the media content thatwas being viewed, i.e., the Simpsons 610, along with apicture-in-picture display 630 of the previously accessed content at thetime associated with Bob dropping the ball. As the picture-in-picturedisplay 630 may include a video clip 625 or the previously accessedcontent beginning at a time associated with the segment for Bob droppingthe ball 625. The picture-in-picture display 630 may also include aprogress bar that includes details about the previously accessed content(the Survivor episode) following a timestamp associated with theselected segment. For example, the progress bar includes segments suchas Sue saves team 635, a vote 640 and the Tribal Council 645 segments ofshow. In some scenarios, it may be suitable to include other segments inthe progress bar following the time the viewer previously stoppedaccessing the Survivor episode.

In some arrangements, the media guidance application may generate fordisplay an additional progress bar 650 for the second or main mediacontent so that if the viewer is distracted by the picture-in-picturedisplay of the previously accessed content, then the viewer can see alist of segments that have occurred in the media content since the timethe viewer started seeing the picture-in-picture display. For example,as shown, a progress bar 650 may include information about eventsoccurring in the Simpsons episode 610 being viewed by the viewer behindthe picture-in-picture display 630 of the Survivor segment. As with theother progress bars discussed with reference to other figures, progressbar 650 may include details about the media content obtained by themedia guidance application by monitoring metadata for the media contentas well as third-party sources of information about the media content.

After the viewer has concluded watching media content, such as theSimpsons episode, or the segment of the Survivor episode selected inFIG. 5, the ending of the media content may include some additionalinteractive actions provided by the media guidance application. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 7, an illustrative screen 700 is depictedincluding a background image of media content such as the Simpsons 710.A picture-in-picture display 725 of the previously accessed content mayalso be displayed in screen 700. When the episode of the Simpsons hasconcluded, the media guidance application may present an image 750associated with the Simpson series or the particular episode of theSimpsons that was just watched. The image 750 may be selected by theviewer to post to social media for the viewer. For example, the viewermay select the image 750 and be presented with a screen to post theimage 750 to a connected Twitter account for the viewer. In anotherexample, the media guidance application may present text suitable forincluding with, or without, the image 750 for the viewer to post tosocial media about the media content. The source of the image 750 and/orany text may be obtained by the media guidance application by searchingmedia databases for a suitable image. In some scenarios, there may benumerous suitable images for the media content. In this case, the mediaguidance application may select an image based on metadata for the imageas well as popularity of the image, based on the user profile, orcombination thereof.

Although the examples described with reference to FIGS. 1-7 haveinvolved only sporting events, reality television, and an episode of atelevision series, any types of media may be treated in the same fashionand presented by the media guidance application with a progress bar forthe previously accessed content so that viewer can be informed of eventsoccurring in the previously accessed content.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 8-9 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 8-9 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 8-9 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 8 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 800arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 800 may include grid 802 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 804, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 806, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 802 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 808, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 810. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 810 may be provided inprogram information region 812. Region 812 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 802 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 814, recorded content listing 816, andInternet content listing 818. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 800 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings814, 816, and 818 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 802 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 802. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 820. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 820.)

Display 800 may also include video region 822, and options region 826.Video region 822 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 822 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 802. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 826 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 826 may be part of display 800 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 826 may concern features related to program listings in grid 802or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.Tivo.com, from other media guidance applicationsthe user accesses, from other interactive applications the useraccesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/orobtain information about the user from other sources that the mediaguidance application may access. As a result, a user can be providedwith a unified guidance application experience across the user'sdifferent user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 11. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 9. Video mosaic display 900 includes selectable options 902 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 900, television listings option 904 isselected, thus providing listings 906, 908, 910, and 912 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 900 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 908 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 914 and text portion 916.Media portion 914 and/or text portion 916 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 914 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 900 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 906 islarger than listings 908, 910, and 912), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 10 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 1000. More specific implementationsof user equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG.11. User equipment device 1000 may receive content and data viainput/output (hereinafter “I/O”) path 1002. I/O path 1002 may providecontent (e.g., broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internetcontent, content available over a local area network (LAN) or wide areanetwork (WAN), and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 1004,which includes processing circuitry 1006 and storage 1008. Controlcircuitry 1004 may be used to send and receive commands, requests, andother suitable data using I/O path 1002. I/O path 1002 may connectcontrol circuitry 1004 (and specifically processing circuitry 1006) toone or more communications paths (described below). I/O functions may beprovided by one or more of these communications paths, but are shown asa single path in FIG. 10 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 1004 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 1006. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 1004 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 1008). Specifically, control circuitry 1004 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 1004 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 1004 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 1004 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 11). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 1008 thatis part of control circuitry 1004. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 1008 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 11, may be used to supplementstorage 1008 or instead of storage 1008.

Control circuitry 1004 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 1004 may also include scaler circuitry forupconverting and downconverting content into the preferred output formatof the user equipment 1000. Circuitry 1004 may also includedigital-to-analog converter circuitry and analog-to-digital convertercircuitry for converting between digital and analog signals. The tuningand encoding circuitry may be used by the user equipment device toreceive and to display, to play, or to record content. The tuning andencoding circuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. Thecircuitry described herein, including for example, the tuning, videogenerating, encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, andanalog/digital circuitry, may be implemented using software running onone or more general purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tunersmay be provided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch andrecord functions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tunerrecording, etc.). If storage 1008 is provided as a separate device fromuser equipment 1000, the tuning and encoding circuitry (includingmultiple tuners) may be associated with storage 1008.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 1004 using user inputinterface 1010. User input interface 1010 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 1012 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 1000. For example, display 1012 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface1010 may be integrated with or combined with display 1012. Display 1012may be one or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display(LCD) for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperaturepoly silicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display,active matrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display,cathode ray tube display, light-emitting diode display,electroluminescent display, plasma display panel, high-performanceaddressing display, thin-film transistor display, organic light-emittingdiode display, surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), lasertelevision, carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometricmodulator display, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visualimages. In some embodiments, display 1012 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 1012 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 1012.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry1004. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 1004.Speakers 1014 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 1000 or may be stand-alone units. The audio componentof videos and other content displayed on display 1012 may be playedthrough speakers 1014. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributedto a receiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio viaspeakers 1014.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 1000. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage1008), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 1004 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 1008 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 1004 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 1010. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 1010 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 1000 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 1000. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 1004 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 1004) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 1000. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 1000.Equipment device 1000 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 1010 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 1000 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 1010.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 1000 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 1004). In some embodiments, the guidanceapplication may be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF),received by control circuitry 1004 as part of a suitable feed, andinterpreted by a user agent running on control circuitry 1004. Forexample, the guidance application may be an EBIF application. In someembodiments, the guidance application may be defined by a series ofJAVA-based files that are received and run by a local virtual machine orother suitable middleware executed by control circuitry 1004. In some ofsuch embodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 1000 of FIG. 10 can be implemented in system 1100of FIG. 11 as user television equipment 1102, user computer equipment1104, wireless user communications device 1106, or any other type ofuser equipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portablegaming machine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 10 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 1102, user computer equipment 1104, or awireless user communications device 1106. For example, user televisionequipment 1102 may, like some user computer equipment 1104, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 1104 may, like some television equipment 1102,include a tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 1104, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 1106.

In system 1100, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 11 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 1102, user computer equipment 1104, wireless usercommunications device 1106) may be referred to as a “second screendevice.” For example, a second screen device may supplement contentpresented on a first user equipment device. The content presented on thesecond screen device may be any suitable content that supplements thecontent presented on the first device. In some embodiments, the secondscreen device provides an interface for adjusting settings and displaypreferences of the first device. In some embodiments, the second screendevice is configured for interacting with other second screen devices orfor interacting with a social network. The second screen device can belocated in the same room as the first device, a different room from thefirst device but in the same house or building, or in a differentbuilding from the first device.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.Tivo.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network1114. Namely, user television equipment 1102, user computer equipment1104, and wireless user communications device 1106 are coupled tocommunications network 1114 via communications paths 1108, 1110, and1112, respectively. Communications network 1114 may be one or morenetworks including the Internet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice ordata network (e.g., a 4G or LTE network), cable network, public switchedtelephone network, or other types of communications network orcombinations of communications networks. Paths 1108, 1110, and 1112 mayseparately or together include one or more communications paths, suchas, a satellite path, a fiber-optic path, a cable path, a path thatsupports Internet communications (e.g., IPTV), free-space connections(e.g., for broadcast or other wireless signals), or any other suitablewired or wireless communications path or combination of such paths. Path1112 is drawn with dotted lines to indicate that in the exemplaryembodiment shown in FIG. 11 it is a wireless path and paths 1108 and1110 are drawn as solid lines to indicate they are wired paths (althoughthese paths may be wireless paths, if desired). Communications with theuser equipment devices may be provided by one or more of thesecommunications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 11 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 1108, 1110, and 1112, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 1114.

System 1100 includes content source 1116 and media guidance data source1118 coupled to communications network 1114 via communication paths 1120and 1122, respectively. Paths 1120 and 1122 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 1108, 1110,and 1112. Communications with the content source 1116 and media guidancedata source 1118 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 11 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 1116 and media guidance data source 1118, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 11 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 1116 and media guidance data source 1118 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 1116 and 1118with user equipment devices 1102, 1104, and 1106 are shown as throughcommunications network 1114, in some embodiments, sources 1116 and 1118may communicate directly with user equipment devices 1102, 1104, and1106 via communication paths (not shown) such as those described abovein connection with paths 1108, 1110, and 1112.

Content source 1116 may include one or more types of contentdistribution equipment including a television distribution facility,cable system headend, satellite distribution facility, programmingsources (e.g., television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.),intermediate distribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers,on-demand media servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademarkowned by the National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademarkowned by the American Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademarkowned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Content source 1116 may be theoriginator of content (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcastprovider, etc.) or may not be the originator of content (e.g., anon-demand content provider, an Internet provider of content of broadcastprograms for downloading, etc.). Content source 1116 may include cablesources, satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 1116 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 1118 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 1118may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 1118 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 1118 mayprovide user equipment devices 1102, 1104, and 1106 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 1008, andexecuted by control circuitry 1004 of a user equipment device 1000. Insome embodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 1004 of user equipment device1000 and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g.,media guidance data source 1118) running on control circuitry of theremote server. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server(such as media guidance data source 1118), the media guidanceapplication may instruct the control circuitry to generate the guidanceapplication displays and transmit the generated displays to the userequipment devices. The server application may instruct the controlcircuitry of the media guidance data source 1118 to transmit data forstorage on the user equipment. The client application may instructcontrol circuitry of the receiving user equipment to generate theguidance application displays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices1102, 1104, and 1106 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 1100 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 11.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 1114.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 1116 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 1102 and user computer equipment 1104may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 1106 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 1114. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 1116 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 1118. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 1102, user computer equipment 1104, andwireless user communications device 1106. For example, the other userequipment devices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or astreamed video. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operatein a peer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 1104 or wireless usercommunications device 1106 having content capture feature.Alternatively, the user can first transfer the content to a userequipment device, such as user computer equipment 1104. The userequipment device storing the content uploads the content to the cloudusing a data transmission service on communications network 1114. Insome embodiments, the user equipment device itself is a cloud resource,and other user equipment devices can access the content directly fromthe user equipment device on which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 10.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1200 forproviding information to a viewer about previously accessed content inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be notedthat process 1200 or any step thereof could be performed on, or providedby, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 10-11. For example, process 1200may be executed by control circuitry 1004 (FIG. 10) as instructed by amedia guidance application implemented on a user device (e.g., userequipment devices 1102, 1104, and/or 1106 (FIG. 11)) to present aprogress bar of information related to previously accessed content. Inaddition, one or more steps of process 1200 may be incorporated into orcombined with one or more steps of any other process or embodimentdescribed herein.

FIG. 12 depicts an illustrative process 1200 for providing informationabout a previously accessed media content item. At step 1210, controlcircuitry 1004 for a media guidance application may access a first mediacontent item using user equipment (e.g., user equipment devices 1102,1104, and/or 1106 (FIG. 11)). The media guidance application controlcircuitry 1004 may access the first media content from any media sourceand generate a display of the first media content in a screen for theuser equipment. Using an example from above, the viewer may wish to viewa basketball game and will make media guidance application selections tocause the basketball game to be displayed. The viewer may then wish toaccess another item of media.

At step 1220, the media guidance application may instruct the userequipment to access second content instead of the first content. In thisstep, the viewer may wish to change from watching the basketball game,for example, to accessing a television program—the Simpsons—and theviewer may have made a selection in the media guidance application torequest the change in media access.

The control circuitry 1004 for a media guidance application may generatea simultaneous display of the second content and information identifyingsegments of the first content at step 1230. For example, in response toreceiving a user request to access second content, the media guidanceapplication will generate a display of the second content along withinformation about the previously accessed first content. Following thebasketball game example, the media guidance application may generate adisplay of a content for the second media item, such as the Simpsons,with a simultaneous display of information about the basketball gamethat the viewer has stopped accessing. The information identifyingsegments for the first content displayed at step 1230 may be eventsoccurring in the first content, i.e., events occurring in the basketballgame, since the viewer stopped accessing the basketball game. Selectedinformation identifying segments may be displayed in a progress bar.

The information identifying segments for the first content may berelated to segments of the first content that may be interesting to theviewer. The segments displayed for the viewer may also be selectable toobtain actions associated with the segments. At step 1240, the mediaguidance application may receive a user selection of one of the segmentsof the first content. For example, the viewer may select, using a userinput device, such as a touchscreen for the display, a remote control, akeyboard or other input device, one of the segments about the firstcontent.

Upon receipt of the user selection of one of the segments of the firstcontent, the media guidance application will perform an action relatedto the selected first segment of the first content, at step 1250. Forexample, a user may select a segment from a progress bar for thebasketball game that relates to a free throw. In response to thisselection, the media guidance application will perform an actionassociated with the selected segment such as record the free throw, addit to a user's watch list, link to the free throw, return to thebasketball game at the time of the free throw, or other suitable action.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 12 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 12 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 10-11 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 12.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1300 forproviding information to a viewer about previously accessed mediacontent in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. It shouldbe noted that process 1300 or any step thereof could be performed on, orprovided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 10-11. For example,process 1300 may be executed by control circuitry 1004 (FIG. 10) asinstructed by a media guidance application implemented on a user device(e.g., user equipment devices 1102, 1104, and/or 1106 (FIG. 11)) topresent a progress bar of information related to previously accessedcontent. In addition, one or more steps of process 1300 may beincorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment described herein.

FIG. 13 depicts steps in an illustrative process 1300 for presentingsegments of information about a previously accessed media item. Process1300 may begin with a viewer who wishes to watch a media content. Atstep 1305, control circuitry 1004 for a media guidance application mayaccess first content with user equipment. The media guidance applicationmay access some item of media content and cause it to be displayed on ascreen of a user device, such as a television or other tablet. The mediacontent may be any type of media supplied by a media source.

The user may then wish to view another media item. The viewer may usethe media guidance application to access another media item. At step1310 the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance application willinstruct the user equipment to access second content instead of thefirst content. The second content is accessed at a first progressionpoint in the first content. Information about the first progressionpoint, such as a time associated with the first progression point may bestored by the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance applicationin a memory or cache. In an example, the user may have started initiallywatching a basketball game, but then changes to accessing another mediaitem such as an episode of the series the Simpsons. In this example, thecontrol circuitry 1004 for the media guidance application will store atimestamp for a time associated with the progression of the basketballgame when the viewer stopped accessing the basketball game.

At step 1315, while the second content is being accessed, the controlcircuitry 1004 for the media guidance application will monitor metadataassociated with the first content for a plurality of events that areassociated with respective timestamps that follow the first progressionpoint. Using the above example, while the episode of the Simpsons isbeing accessed by the viewer, the media guidance application may monitormetadata about the basketball game for events occurring in the game thathave a timestamp that follows the first progression point, i.e., whenthe viewer stopped watching the basketball game. The metadata may bemonitored by the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication from one or more media sources, or from a third-party mediasource or user generated commentary about the media. Generally speaking,the media guidance application will focus on events having metadata thatindicates a timestamp for the event that occurs following the firstprogression point because events that occurred while the user wasaccessing the media content, before the user stopped watching the mediacontent, would likely have been seen and would be less interesting tothe viewer.

At step 1320, in response to detecting an event of the plurality ofevents in the first content, the control circuitry 1004 for the mediaguidance application may store information identifying the event in alist of segments of the first content that follow the first progressionpoint. For example, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication may store timestamp information for an event in the firstcontent. In addition, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication may determine links or availability of content associatedwith the event and store such information in a cache. In the basketballexample, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance applicationmay detect a plurality of events, such as scoring events from a sportsfeed for the basketball game. Such events may be captured along withtimestamp information for the events and stored by the control circuitry1004 for the media guidance application.

At step 1325 the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication may generate for display on the user equipment, asimultaneous display of the second content and the list of segments ofthe first content that follow the first progression point. For example,the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance application may reviewthe stored events and select one or more the stored events for thepreviously accessed media and generate a progress bar of certain eventsto display in the user equipment screen. In general, the display of theprogress bar may be relatively limited in the screen space so that it isnot overly distracting to the viewer. The event segments selected to beincluded in the progress bar may be changed over time as the contentprogresses and more and more events occur in the content, and inaddition, more metadata and user generated commentary about the eventsbecomes available. In some arrangements, some of the events may bepresented in a manner that highlights certain events as being morerelevant to interesting to the user. Such events may be identified bythe control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance application usingmetadata for the event, user preference information, popularity of theevent, etc. The segments in the list may be selected by the viewer.

At step 1330, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication may receive a user selection of a first of the segments inthe list of the first content. The user selection may be made by theuser using a user input technique such as an input in a remote controlor using a touchscreen device or keyboard, etc., to enter a selection ofa segment via the media guidance application. The segment selection maybe one of the list of segments in the progress bar in the display in theuser equipment screen. For example, a progress bar may include variousscoring events in the basketball game and may include a segment about afree throw by one of the players. The viewer may wish to view the freethrow, and so the viewer may select the respective segment for the freethrow.

In response to the user selection, the control circuitry 1004 for themedia guidance application may retrieve timestamps of the first segmentthat represent a start time and an end time of the first event in thefirst content at step 1335. In this step, the control circuitry 1004 forthe media guidance application will consult its cache of informationabout the events to check for timestamps associated with the events toidentify a start and end time for the segment. The timestamps can beused to present the relevant part of the content to the viewer.

At step 1340, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication will perform an action related to the selected first segmentof the first content based on the retrieved timestamps. For example, thecontrol circuitry 1004 for the media guidance application can cause thecontent associated with the selected segment to be recorded, added to aviewer's watch list, resume watching, share a link to the content, orother action. The control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication may access the relevant content from a media source usingthe timestamps for the segment to locate the exact portion of the mediathat the viewer wishes to access.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 13 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 13 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 10-11 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 13.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1400 forselecting a segment of previously accessed content to include in aprogress bar display in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. It should be noted that process 1400 or any step thereofcould be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS.10-11. For example, process 1400 may be executed by control circuitry1004 (FIG. 10) as instructed by a media guidance application implementedon a user device (e.g., user equipment devices 1102, 1104, and/or 1106(FIG. 11)) to present a progress bar of information related topreviously accessed content. In addition, one or more steps of process1300 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of anyother process or embodiment described herein.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for selecting segmentof previously accessed content to include in a progress bar display. Inan example, a viewer may access a basketball game and then access atelevision program. In the television program display screen, a mediaguidance application may generate a simultaneous display of a progressbar for the basketball game so that the viewer can watch the televisionprogram while also seeing certain highlights or events of the game thatthey have stopped watching. In order to select the segments or events toinclude in the progress bar, the media guidance application may monitormetadata for the previously accessed content item, i.e., the basketballgame.

The control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance application maymonitor one or more media sources for metadata for the previouslyaccessed content. In the example of the basketball game, the mediaguidance application may monitor a sports feed for the team,organization or channel associated with the basketball game. At step1410, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance application mayreceive metadata for the previously accessed content, such as thebasketball game. The metadata may be any type of data about thepreviously accessed content. In the basketball game example, scoring,plays and point information may be considered various events. Otherevents also occur in the basketball game, such as a halftime show, crowddisplays, or other events could also have associated metadata. The eventmetadata may be obtained from a data feed or from third party mediasources or social networks. For example, the media guidance applicationcould monitor postings for a hashtag for one or both of the teamsplaying in the basketball game, or other monitoring technique.

At step 1420, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication may identify segments of the content. The segments may beidentified by analyzing the metadata for information indicating eventshave occurred in the content, such as a play or point scoring event, orplayer related event or halftime show or other occurrence.

At step 1430, the media guidance application may then search one or moremedia databases for feedback associated with the identified segments ofthe content. For example, the media guidance application may search gamecommentary for instances using the identified segments.

At step 1440, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication may analyze the feedback to determine if it is positive ofindicating that it is useful or popular. Such analysis may be based, forexample, on whether the segment has been used in any instance in anycommentary or social media. The segment may also be analyzed for itsrespective type and the type may be used to determine whether it isgenerally useful.

If the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance applicationdetermines that the feedback is positive, then at step 1450, the controlcircuitry 1004 for the media guidance application may determine todisplay the segment. If the control circuitry 1004 for the mediaguidance application determines that the feedback is not positive, thenthe media guidance application may drop the segment at step 1460 and notuse the segment in a list of segments to include in the progress bar forthe viewer.

In addition to being included in the list of the progress bar, thecontrol circuitry 1004 for the media guidance application may determinewhether to highlight the segment at step 1470 by determining whether thesegment is available in multiple sources. At step 1470, the mediaguidance application may check if the segment has been used or madeavailable in more than one media source. In general, the more instancesthat the segment is available or appearing in various media sources, maybe an indicator that it is popular or interesting to viewers. Thus, ifthe segment appears in multiple sources, then it may be displayed in theprogress in a highlighted or distinctive manner at step 1480 by thecontrol circuitry 1004 for the media guidance application. If thesegment does not appear in multiple sources, it may be included ordisplayed normally in the progress bar. Process 1400 may be repeated astime progresses and more metadata becomes available for the segments.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 14 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 14 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 10-11 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 14.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1500 forselecting segments to include in a progress bar for previously accessedmedia in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. It shouldbe noted that process 1500 or any step thereof could be performed on, orprovided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 10-11. For example,process 1500 may be executed by control circuitry 1004 (FIG. 10) asinstructed by a media guidance application implemented on a user device(e.g., user equipment devices 1102, 1104, and/or 1106 (FIG. 11)) topresent a progress bar of information related to previously accessedcontent. In addition, one or more steps of process 1500 may beincorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment described herein.

FIG. 15 depicts a process 1500 that may be used to select segments toinclude in a progress bar about previously accessed media. For example,viewer may watch a basketball game and then access a television program.When the television program is displayed, a media guidance applicationmay monitor metadata about the basketball game to obtain events that maybe of interest to the user. Information about such events may beincluded in a progress bar that is displayed in the screen showing thetelevision program. Selection of the segments to include in the progressbar may be performed by the control circuitry 1004 for the mediaguidance application.

At step 1510, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication may receive metadata indicating segments of the previouslyaccessed content. For example, the media guidance application mayreceive metadata about plays occurring in the basketball game from asports feed. The metadata about the plays can include, for example, timeinformation for the play, the type of play, the player involved in theplay, or other information.

At step 1520, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication may compare the segment of content to user profile. In thisstep, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance application maycompare information about the segment, such as players making plays,type of plays, against the user profile. In an example, a user may havea favorite team or a fantasy basketball team and such information may beincluded in the user profile. The user profile information may beexplicitly added by the user or learned by the media guidanceapplication, for example, by monitoring the user's viewing habits anduse of fantasy sports applications.

At step 1530, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication may determine whether the segment matches a user preferencein the user profile. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine which, if any, segments are related to a favorite player,fantasy team player, etc. In another example, the media guidanceapplication may determine if any segments relate to special types ofplays. In another example, the media guidance application may determineif any segments are for a halftime show that includes a popular orfavorite performer.

Based on the determination at step 1530, the control circuitry 1004 forthe media guidance may select matching segments at step 1540 to includein the progress bar for the previously accessed content. For segmentsthat do not match the user profile, the control circuitry 1004 for themedia guidance application may drop the segment at 1550 from the list.Process 1500 may be repeated as time progresses and more metadatabecomes available for the segments. Process 1400 and 1500 may be usedtogether or separately to improve the relevance of the segments includedin the progress bar.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 15 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 15 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 10-11 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 15.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1600 forgenerating a second progress bar for second content in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process 1600or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 10-11. For example, process 1600 may be executedby control circuitry 1004 (FIG. 10) as instructed by a media guidanceapplication implemented on a user device (e.g., user equipment devices1102, 1104, and/or 1106 (FIG. 11)) in to present a progress bar ofinformation related to previously accessed content order to simulate asporting event. In addition, one or more steps of process 1600 may beincorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment described herein.

FIG. 16 depicts an illustrative process 1600 that may be used togenerate a second progress bar for a second content item. In the examplewhere a viewer has watched a basketball game and then changed toaccessing a television program, if the viewer selects to access asegment from the basketball game, the media guidance application maygenerate a display that includes the selected segment and also a secondprogress bar that includes event information for the television program.

At step 1605, control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance applicationmay receive a selection of first segment of the first content. In adisplay of a television program that includes a progress bar ofpreviously watched content, a viewer may select a segment from theprogress bar to obtain actions that can be performed by the mediaguidance application. For example, a television program display mayinclude a progress bar for a basketball game that the viewer waspreviously watching. The progress bar may include one or more segmentsrelating to events that have occurred since the viewer stopped accessingthe basketball game. When the viewer selects one of the segments, themedia guidance application may generate an action or options window inwhich the viewer may enter a selection for an action associated with thesegment. The selection of the segment may be received by controlcircuitry 1004 for the media guidance application and the media guidanceapplication may determine a source and time associated with the segmentso that the media guidance application can perform the needed action.

At step 1610, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication may generate with the user equipment a picture-in-picturedisplay associated with the selected segment. In particular, the controlcircuitry 1004 for the media guidance application may determine atimestamp associated with the segment and identify the relevant portionof the first content, i.e., the basketball game, to display in thepicture-in-picture display. The segment content may be obtained by thecontrol circuitry 1004 for the media guidance application from theoriginal media source used to access the first content, or from anothermedia source if suitable and available.

Since the addition of the picture-in-picture display associated with theselected segment may distract the user from the television program theywere viewing, the media guidance application may monitor metadata forthe television program to identify segments that can be included in asecond progress bar for the second content, i.e., the television programthe viewer changed to watch. At step 1620, the control circuitry 1004for the media guidance application may generate with the user equipmentfor display in the second content segments for the second contentfollowing a point in time after the first segment. The second progressbar will include segments for the second content that follow the timeassociated with accessing the selected segment for the previouslywatched content. For example, when the viewer selects a segment to watcha play from the basketball game they previously accessed, the mediaguidance application may identify segments from the television programto include in a second progress bar that have a timestamp following thetime the basketball segment was selected. In some scenarios, a timebuffer of a short period slightly before the selection time may be addedso that events that occurred slightly before the time of the selectioncould be included in case the viewer was distracted by the basketballgame progress bar and missed something in the television program.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 16 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 16 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 10-11 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 16.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1700 forselecting images related to the accessed content for sharing on socialmedia in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. It shouldbe noted that process 1700 or any step thereof could be performed on, orprovided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 10-11. For example,process 1700 may be executed by control circuitry 1004 (FIG. 10) asinstructed by a media guidance application implemented on a user device(e.g., user equipment devices 1102, 1104, and/or 1106 (FIG. 11)) topresent an image associated with the content. In addition, one or moresteps of process 1700 may be incorporated into or combined with one ormore steps of any other process or embodiment described herein.

FIG. 17 depicts an illustrative process 1700 for supplying an image to aviewer associated with content. The image may be presented to the userfollowing the conclusion of the content and made available to use forposting on social media. In some scenarios, text about the contentand/or image may also be supplied by a media guidance application tofacilitate posting about the content on social media.

At step 1710, control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance applicationmay search for images associated with content. In the example of thedescribed in connection with FIGS. 3-7, a viewer may watch an episode ofa reality television series Survivor. Then the viewer may begin watchinganother television series episode for the Simpsons. When access to theSimpsons has been concluded, i.e., when the viewer has finished viewingthe Simpsons, the media guidance application may search for imagesassociated with the Simpsons. In some examples, the media guidanceapplication may focus on images associated with the episode that wasaccessed. The media guidance application may search for Simpsons imagesin metadata associated with the media content, or by searching adatabase of images or a media database of images for the show.

Since there may be numerous images associated with the show, the mediaguidance application may select a particular one (or more) of the imagesfor the user. At step 1720, the control circuitry 1004 for the mediaguidance application will determine a relative popularity of the images.The image popularity may be determined by use and availability of theimage. For example, the media guidance application may detect that aparticular image is used in a number of places. In another example, themedia guidance application may detect that another image is availablefrom a number of sources. The media guidance application may searchsocial media networks for the user, or generally available social medianetworks, to identify images used in association with media content. Anyinstance of these exemplary uses of an image may be used alone or incombination to designate a relative popularity of the image. Certainsources and use types may have a particular importance weight that canalso be used to determine popularity. For example, some media sources orthird-party commentators may be more influential or popular than others.

Based on the relative popularity of the images, at step 1730, thecontrol circuitry 1004 for the media guidance application may rank theimages. The ranking may be based on the relative popularity and includeweighting the different factors, e.g., the uses and sources for theimage.

When the content that the viewer has accessed concludes at step 1740,the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance application may selectthe most popular image for the content to present to the viewer.

The control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance application maygenerate for display at step 1750 the selected most popular image forthe user to select to post on social media. The media guidanceapplication may receive a selection by the user and can send the imageto any linked social media accounts so that the user can easily post theimage.

In some scenarios, the media guidance application will also search forcommentary to include with the social media posting and provide suchcommentary to the viewer to choose. In some examples, the commentary canbe canned and related finishing any type of content, such as “I justbinged the season” or more relevant to a series, “I just binged season26 of the Simpsons!” In another example, the commentary can be searchedand collected from media databases and third-party media sources fortext that is commonly associated with the content. For example, “I wasvoted off the island” for finishing Survivor content, or “D'oh!” forfinishing a Simpsons episode.

Process 1700 may also be followed upon conclusion of accessing a segmentfrom a progress bar for the first content that the viewer had previouslyviewed. For example, if the viewer selects to view a clip of Survivorwhere Bob drops a ball, or the viewer selects to view a clip of athree-point shot in the basketball game, the media guidance applicationmay present a suitable image related to the segment for the viewer toshare on social media.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 17 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 17 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 10-11 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 17.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted that the systems and/or methods described above may be appliedto, or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for identifying segments of previouslyaccessed content, the method comprising: accessing with controlcircuitry, first content with user equipment; instructing the userequipment to present second content for display instead of the firstcontent, wherein the second content is accessed at a first progressionpoint in the first content; while the second content is being presented,monitoring metadata associated with the first content for a plurality ofevents that are associated with respective timestamps within the firstcontent that follow the first progression point in the first content; inresponse to detecting an event of the plurality of events in the firstcontent, storing information identifying the event in a navigable,ordered list of segments of the first content that follow the firstprogression point in the first content; generating with controlcircuitry for display on the user equipment, a simultaneous display ofthe second content and a navigable progress bar indicating thenavigable, ordered list of segments of the first content that follow thefirst progression point in the first content without displaying thefirst content; receiving at the control circuitry, a user selection of afirst of the segments in the list of the first content; retrievingtimestamps of the first segment that represent a start time and an endtime of the first event in the first content; and performing an actionrelated to the selected first segment of the first content based on theretrieved timestamps.
 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:aggregating feedback for the first content to identify interestingsegments of the first content; highlighting the identified interestingsegments of the first content in the simultaneous display; andpresenting in the display for the highlighted identified interestingsegments of the first content additional interaction options.
 3. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising: comparing each segment in thenavigable, ordered list of segments to a user profile; and visuallydistinguishing a given segment of the first content in the list inresponse to determining that the given segment matches the user profile.4. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining with controlcircuitry a type of each of the respective events based on metadata forthe respective event; comparing with control circuitry the event typewith a user profile; and selecting an event having a respective eventtype matching the user profile for inclusion in the list.
 5. The methodof claim 1 further comprising while the second content is beingpresented, monitoring metadata associated with the first content for aplurality of events that are associated with respective timestampswithin the first content that follow the first progression point in thefirst content.
 6. The method of claim 1 further comprising, in responseto a selection of the first segment of the first content, generating fordisplay in the second content, a picture-in-picture display of the firstcontent at a time corresponding to a timestamp for the selected firstsegment, a display of the navigable, ordered list of segments for thefirst content that follow the timestamp for the selected segment, and adisplay of a second navigable, ordered list of segments for the secondcontent that follows a timestamp associated with the selection of thefirst segment.
 7. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing linksto additional content related to the respective segments of the firstcontent in the list.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein the action relatedto the selected first segment comprises at least one of: recording thefirst segment, adding the selected segment to a watch list, sharing thefirst segment on a social network, generating a clip associated with theselected first segment, resuming the first content at the firstprogression point in the first content, and accessing the first contentstarting from the start time of the first segment.
 9. The method ofclaim 1 further comprising: identifying, using control circuitry, animage associated with the second content; when the second content hasconcluded: presenting to the user the image associated with the secondcontent; and presenting textual commentary associated with the image;receiving, with the control circuitry, a selection by the user of anoption to post the image and the textual commentary associated with theimage; and transmitting from the control circuitry to a social network acommunication that includes the image and the textual commentary inresponse to receiving the selection, wherein the image is identified by:searching an image database for images associated with the secondcontent; analyzing with control circuitry information about each of therespective images; determining a popularity of the respective imagesbased on the information about each of the respective images; andselecting an image of the respective images having a highest popularity.10. The method of claim 1, wherein the navigable progress bar indicatingthe navigable, ordered list of segments of the first content that followthe first progression point in the first content without displaying thefirst content includes one or more of the following: previously vieweddetails about the first content; information about a sequence of eventsoccurring in the first content; information of relevance based on a userprofile; selectable options for each of the navigable, ordered list ofsegments resulting in an action related to the corresponding segment;changing information as time elapses during the first content includingadditional events occurring in the first content; one or morehighlighted items, wherein the highlighting is based on information froma user profile; one or more highlighted items, wherein the highlightingis based on a determination that the item is interesting or popularbased on treatment by commentators or in social media; segments includedin the navigable progress bar obtained from metadata about the firstcontent; a timestamp for each segment, wherein, upon selection of thesegment, a time interval of the first content is determined for displayof the selected segment; information about the first content from a timeaccess to the first content was stopped; and a video clip associatedwith the first content.
 11. A system for identifying segments ofpreviously accessed content, the system comprising: input/output (I/O)interface circuitry configured to receive a user input; and controlcircuitry configured to: access with control circuitry, first contentwith user equipment; instruct the user equipment to present secondcontent for display instead of the first content, wherein the secondcontent is accessed at a first progression point in the first content;while the second content is being presented, monitor metadata associatedwith the first content for a plurality of events that are associatedwith respective timestamps within the first content that follow thefirst progression point in the first content; in response to detectingan event of the plurality of events in the first content, storeinformation identifying the event in a navigable, ordered list ofsegments of the first content that follow the first progression point inthe first content; generate with control circuitry for display on theuser equipment, a simultaneous display of the second content and anavigable progress bar indicating the navigable, ordered list ofsegments of the first content that follow the first progression point inthe first content without displaying the first content; receive at thecontrol circuitry, a user selection of a first of the segments in thelist of the first content; retrieve timestamps of the first segment thatrepresent a start time and an end time of the first event in the firstcontent; and perform an action related to the selected first segment ofthe first content based on the retrieved timestamps.
 12. The system ofclaim 11 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:aggregate feedback for the first content to identify interestingsegments of the first content; highlight the identified interestingsegments of the first content in the simultaneous display; and presentin the display for the highlighted identified interesting segments ofthe first content additional interaction options.
 13. The system ofclaim 11 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: compareeach segment in the navigable, ordered list of segments to a userprofile; and visually distinguish a given segment of the first contentin the list in response to determining that the given segment matchesthe user profile.
 14. The system of claim 11 wherein the controlcircuitry is further configured to: determine with control circuitry atype of each of the respective events based on metadata for therespective event; compare with control circuitry the event type with auser profile; and select an event having a respective event typematching the user profile for inclusion in the list.
 15. The system ofclaim 11 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to whilethe second content is being presented, monitor metadata associated withthe first content for a plurality of events that are associated withrespective timestamps within the first content that follow the firstprogression point in the first content.
 16. The system of claim 11wherein the control circuitry is further configured to in response to aselection of the first segment of the first content, generate fordisplay in the second content, a picture-in-picture display of the firstcontent at a time corresponding to a timestamp for the selected firstsegment, a display of the navigable, ordered list of segments for thefirst content that follow the timestamp for the selected segment, and adisplay of a second navigable, ordered list of segments for the secondcontent that follows a timestamp associated with the selection of thefirst segment.
 17. The system of claim 11 wherein the control circuitryis further configured to store links to additional content related tothe respective segments of the first content in the list.
 18. The systemof claim 11 wherein the action related to the selected first segmentcomprises at least one of recording the first segment, adding theselected segment to a watch list, sharing the first segment on a socialnetwork, generating a clip associated with the selected first segment,resuming the first content at the first progression point in the firstcontent, and accessing the first content starting from the start time ofthe first segment.
 19. The system of claim 11 wherein the controlcircuitry is further configured to: identify, using control circuitry,an image associated with the second content; when the second content hasconcluded: present to the user the image associated with the secondcontent; and present textual commentary associated with the image;receive, with the control circuitry, a selection by the user of anoption to post the image and the textual commentary associated with theimage; and transmit from the control circuitry to a social network acommunication that includes the image and the textual commentary inresponse to receiving the selection, wherein the control circuitryconfigured to identify the image is further configured to: search animage database for images associated with the second content; analyzewith control circuitry information about each of the respective images;determine a popularity of the respective images based on the informationabout each of the respective images; and select an image of therespective images having a highest popularity.
 20. The system of claim11, wherein the navigable progress bar indicating the navigable, orderedlist of segments of the first content that follow the first progressionpoint in the first content without displaying the first content includesone or more of the following: previously viewed details about the firstcontent; information about a sequence of events occurring in the firstcontent; information of relevance based on a user profile; selectableoptions for each of the navigable, ordered list of segments resulting inan action related to the corresponding segment; changing information astime elapses during the first content including additional eventsoccurring in the first content; one or more highlighted items, whereinthe highlighting is based on information from a user profile; one ormore highlighted items, wherein the highlighting is based on adetermination that the item is interesting or popular based on treatmentby commentators or in social media; segments included in the navigableprogress bar obtained from metadata about the first content; a timestampfor each segment, wherein, upon selection of the segment, a timeinterval of the first content is determined for display of the selectedsegment; information about the first content from a time access to thefirst content was stopped; and a video clip associated with the firstcontent.